CONTEMPORARY | INFLUENTIAL | ENLIGHTENING

In celebration of the 100th birthday of Pierre Boulez, conductor Daniel Cohen joins BBC NOW for an evening of 20th Century gems, kicking off with Boulez’s own Livres pour cordes. Unsurpassable beauty and depth run deep in this angular and fragmentary work, which is nothing but lyrical throughout.

Ava Bahari makes her debut with BBC NOW in Berg’s best-known and most performed work, his powerful Violin Concerto, before BBC NOW’s Principal Flute, Matthew Featherstone, steps into the spotlight for Boulez’s Memoriale, a dynamic masterstroke of extended flute technique. His former teacher, and inspiring influence, Olivier Messiaen is up next as we explore his reverential Les Offrandes oubliée and we delve into the turbulence of forbidden love in Wagner’s musical embodiment of drama, Tristan und Isolde.

Boulez Livres pour cordes

Berg Violin Concerto

Boulez Memoriale

Messiaen Les Offrandes oubliées

Wagner Prelude und Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde

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Daniel Cohen conductor

Ava Bahari violin

Matthew Featherstone flute